Child car seats are well known in the art and are designed to secure a child in the seat of a moving vehicle. Restraining seats for infants are often designed for both rear- and forward-facing positioning, depending on the size and age of the child. Recent evidence suggests that the longer an infant is able to be positioned in a rear-facing seat, the more likely that infant will be sufficiently protected in a crash than in a forward-facing seat.
Conventional child car seats are composed of polypropylene plastic to provide structural support and padding or other cushioned materials to provide a comfortable seat for a child. Conventional child car seats can be used to transport a child in an airplane seat, but there are several drawbacks to this approach.
Conventional child car seats are sometimes approved for use on airplanes, but are unwieldy and difficult to carry when not in use. This is especially true when a conventional child seat is used by parents or guardians in airplane travel. Another problem is that conventional child car seats are difficult to store when not in use, especially where space is limited in a home or in a hotel if parents or guardians of a child are traveling.
Some products are available that purport to enable a more portable child seat for use in an airplane. Such products often consist primarily of reducing the size slightly of a conventional car seat and may have a handle and wheels for rolling the child seat. These so-called portable child seats still remain bulky and are difficult to store and carry when not in use.
Another problem facing parents and guardians in traveling with small children is that conventional child car seats and travel seats are incapable of providing sufficient distractions to a child during a long flight. For travelers with children, keeping them quiet throughout a flight is often an insurmountable task. What is needed is a compact, secure travel seat that can enable a parent or guardian to placate an otherwise fussy infant or child.